[Robb_K]

Hi Folks!  Here are three Golden Age Comic Books for us to read, review and comment upon, in an early visit to Christmas this year.  They represent three different genres, classic novel adaptations, Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes, and Funny Animal comedy Stories and gags.  At least two of the books were drawn completely by master pencilers and inkers, and the third was drawn by animators, who have drawn much better than the art in the book I've chosen (but I chose it because it was one of the couple best Golden Age  PD Funny Animal Christmas Giant Annuals that actually has at least a couple Christmas stories in it).

They are as follows:

(1) British "Thriller Comics Library #109", Dickens' "A Christmas Carol”, Drawn by master inker, H.M. Brock in 1955.  This is absolutely the best drawn comic book version of this favourite story of mine that I can remember.  And it occupies enough pages to do its plot and story scope some justice.



Thriller Comics Library #109 can be found here:    https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=77014



(2) Standard Comics' "Santa’s Christmas Comics # 1" (1952), drawn by Milt Stein, Jack Bradbury & Other Funny Animal ex-animation artists.  Most Golden Age Funny Animal special annual giant Christmas comic books that were not published by Dell Comics, were simply 3 monthly or bi-monthly comic books previously issued earlier that year, and so, contained not even one Christmas-themed story.  But this one does, and, although the artwork in it isn't as good as the bulk of their work, it still fulfills some nostalgia requirements from my childhood.



Santa’s Christmas Comics # 1 can be found here:    https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=16932



(3) Dell Four Color Comics # 253, "Christmas With Mother Goose", drawn completely by Walt Kelly, in 1949.  It has some great Kelly artistic interpretations of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes and riddles, as well as a couple of original Christmas stories.  It also brings back a lot of wonderful childhood memories for me.



Dell Four Color Comics # 253 can be found here:     https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=16719


I hope you will enjoy them, and look forward to all of your comments.  I suspect we will have some in depth discussions on the artwork, memories of our childhoods, and, possibly, the sexist, and racist stereotyped portrayals of behaviour or looks of some of the characters, which were typical of the 1940s and 1950s.

[Quirky Quokka]

Thanks Robb. Certainly a mixed bag there. Looking forward to digging into them 

[SuperScrounge]

Thriller Comics Library #109

A Christmas Carol

Eh, a silly little story about ghosts on Christmas. Why would anyone think that people would like this?


Kidding! I'm kidding! 

A very well done adaptation to the Dickens classic. Very nice art.

I have a book about Victorian Ghost Stories which talks about the times were changing and people felt they were losing things of the past as mechanization was coming in and there was a big revival in reading stories about ghosts at Christmas, as what better metaphor for dealing with what's passed.

Dickens saw what money the various publishers were making and thought A Christmas Carol (which I think he self-published) would be a good way to make some money. Although despite writing it to just be a cash grab he apparently put so much extra into it that he hardly made any profit. Not his only Christmas ghost story, but certainly one of his, if not the world's, best Christmas ghost stories.

[Quirky Quokka]

Thriller Comics Library #109

A Christmas Carol


I have a book about Victorian Ghost Stories which talks about the times were changing and people felt they were losing things of the past as mechanization was coming in and there was a big revival in reading stories about ghosts at Christmas, as what better metaphor for dealing with what's passed.

Dickens saw what money the various publishers were making and thought A Christmas Carol (which I think he self-published) would be a good way to make some money. Although despite writing it to just be a cash grab he apparently put so much extra into it that he hardly made any profit. Not his only Christmas ghost story, but certainly one of his, if not the world's, best Christmas ghost stories.

Thanks for that, SuperScrounge. I read that his profits were further reduced because he took legal action against some publishers who copied it illegally. Christmas cheer all round 

[Quirky Quokka]

Hi all

I'm still reading 'A Christmas Carol' and will put a review up later. But it got me thinking about all the film and TV adaptations that have been done. This link lists 14 of them. What are your favourites from this list, or do you have one that's not on this list?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/a-christmas-carol-best-movie-tv-show-adaptations/

My favourite from that list is 'The Muppet Christmas Carol' with Michael Caine as Scrooge. Surprisingly moving in parts. Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNo-Q0IDJi0

But they left off another of my favourites  - The Dr Who 'A Christmas Carol' in which the Scrooge-like character had kept the love of his life in a cryogenic-like chamber and she only came out each Christmas. I can't remember all the fine details, but he eventually realised he had to let her go (sniff). Here's a short clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQEu46BJiJI

How about you?

Cheers

Quirky Quokka

[SuperScrounge]

Santa's Christmas Comics

A Super-Merry Christmas
Terrible Tom's change of heart doesn't make much sense. Does he have a multiple personality disorder?

Ship-A-Hooey
Why would a boat company sell a boat with a piece missing?

Tragic Magic
Eh, okay, but nothing special.

Revenge Is Sweet
Ummm... interesting. It's not bad, but I have trouble seeing the return to the status quo as a happy ending. If this story were written a few years ago Happy could have gotten a job at Twitter.  (Thinking of a recent video where a gal films her day 'working' at Twitter.)

The Christmas Gift
Written by Betty Hill... why am I expecting a flying saucer to turn up?  Okay, but people who don't think animals should be gifts would hate this story.

A Vicious Cycle
Percy needs a new girlfriend.

Christmas Capers
Odd.

Money to Spurn
With friends like that, who needs enemies? Not wanting to hang out with someone who now has money really needed a better explanation behind it. As it's the reason for why Merton tries to get rid of his money, being a weak explanation undercuts the rest of the story.

Cat-Nipped
Okay.

The Stylish Polar Bear
Pretty basic lesson story, not terrible, but not great either.

It Pays To Advertise
Cute. I was actually chuckling at the end.

The Ink Slinger
Simple, but okay.

Bubble Trouble
Ditto.

Unevenly Matched
Not quite up to the level of Charles Atlas making a man out of Mac, but okay.

The Ghost of Gloomy Castle
Not too bad. At least they tied the meat delivery job into the ending rather than having it be an odd non sequitur.

Skating Beaver
Okay.

Flying High
Spunky goes on an acid trip.  Actually a pretty good story.

Sound Investment
Okay.

What a Van
How did Dizzy get the van into his moving company if the opening was too small? Otherwise okay.

[SuperScrounge]

What are your favourites from this list, or do you have one that's not on this list?

I was surprised how many TV shows did episodes based on it. I was expecting more movie versions like Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol or the one where Henry Winkler played Scrooge (actual TV movie, not Happy Days) An American Christmas Carol, or Mickey's Christmas Carol.

But they left off another of my favourites  - The Dr Who 'A Christmas Carol'

Charles Dickens actually appeared in The Unquiet Dead during the first season of the revival.

I've seen so many different versions through the years it's kind of hard to compare them. I mean I liked Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol as a kid, but would I like it now? Hard to say.

I do remember an old-time radio show where somebody wrote about Scrooge's life after A Christmas Carol. Kind of dark, but not bad.

There was a comedy (a sketch TV show?) where Scrooge had become too nice and the spirits have to teach him to not be so gullible, or something.

And, of course, Blackadder's Christmas Carol.

[Quirky Quokka]

I was surprised how many TV shows did episodes based on it. I was expecting more movie versions like Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol or the one where Henry Winkler played Scrooge (actual TV movie, not Happy Days) An American Christmas Carol, or Mickey's Christmas Carol.

Charles Dickens actually appeared in The Unquiet Dead during the first season of the revival.

I've seen so many different versions through the years it's kind of hard to compare them. I mean I liked Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol as a kid, but would I like it now? Hard to say.

I do remember an old-time radio show where somebody wrote about Scrooge's life after A Christmas Carol. Kind of dark, but not bad.

There was a comedy (a sketch TV show?) where Scrooge had become too nice and the spirits have to teach him to not be so gullible, or something.

And, of course, Blackadder's Christmas Carol.

Hi SuperScrounge

I hadn't seen those ones, and I'd forgotten about Charles Dickens turning up in Dr Who.  I watched the clip of the Henry Winkler one and saw that the young lad was being sent off to Australia to have treatment with Elizabeth Kenny. She's quite famous here for her treatment of polio, and there's a memorial to her in a town called Nobby that's about half an hour from where I live:

https://www.southernqueenslandcountry.com.au/products/things-to-do/sister-kenny-memorial-nobby/

I also hadn't seen the Blackadder one, but found some clips on YouTube including this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfYx_013UuY

What a catch Tony Robinson was back in the day! And an interesting early-ish appearance of Stephen Fry. Amazing how many times 'A Christmas Carol' has been taken off, both seriously and in fun.

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

A Christmas Carol

I've heard the story and seen some adaptations, but I've never read the original. I assume that many of the lines in this comic book are taken from the original? It's even grimmer in parts than some of the the adaptations, and stands the test of time. No wonder people are still making adaptations of it 179 years later. It still has a good message.

I also enjoyed the art. Some lovely work. Very realistic.

Not much to say except that I enjoyed it. Thanks for the selection, Robb.

Cheers

QQ

[Robb_K]

A Christmas Carol

I've heard the story and seen some adaptations, but I've never read the original. I assume that many of the lines in this comic book are taken from the original? It's even grimmer in parts than some of the the adaptations, and stands the test of time. No wonder people are still making adaptations of it 179 years later. It still has a good message.

I also enjoyed the art. Some lovely work. Very realistic.

Not much to say except that I enjoyed it. Thanks for the selection, Robb.

Cheers
QQ 

I recognise quite a bit of the lines (if not all) being taken directly from the book.  It is quite true to the book, and Dickens' visual idea of it.

[paw broon]

Not a Christmas Carol but a great wee thriller set around Christmas.  We watch it every year.
https://archive.org/details/SaloonBar

[K1ngcat]

A Christmas Carol

What can I say? The art, from cover to cover, is exquisite. Brock's scratchy style recalls the earlier works we've recently seen from Charles Dana Gibson and Phil May, which seems very appropriate under the circumstances, and his figures convey a strong understanding of posture and action. I have to admit I've never read Dickens' version but the language suggests a faithful translation. I wonder if I don't get a little hint of that old humbug that the life of poorer people is infinitely preferable to that of their richer counterparts, which I strangely doubt, as I only ever hear the rich saying it. But maybe that's just me being political. It's a lovely rendition of an iconic tale, and I appreciate Robb's bringing it to our attention. God bless us, every one!

Santa's Christmas Comics

Oh where shall I begin? How come Supermouse is flying before he even gets a taste of his Supercheese? I'm not sure I entirely buy Terrible Tom's last minute repentance, I can't see Dr Doom or the Red Skull caving in so quickly. I can only hope his gaol served up a tasty Xmas pudding with plenty of custard to make it worth his while. Cute after a fashion.

Goofy Gander. To quote the bird himself, "I don't think it's a bit funny." Okay, maybe just a tad...

Bonnie Bunny. Poetic Justice.

Happy Rabbit. With a cast of thousands. And a lot happening, most of which is barely credible, even for Funny Animals. I note that nobody at GCD has been able to find any artists or writers to credit, maybe that'll spare a few blushes.

Percy Pig. The last panel managed to wrench a wry smile from me, and not before time. And so it goes on.

Coocoo's Christmas Capers. See? My theory about Xmas dinner in the pokey is borne out by a birdie.

Merton Monk. Also bears out my theory about rich people. Or Monkeys.

Tommy Turtle. So cats and dogs are animals but pigs and turtles ain't? Now I'm confused.

Dizzy Duck. And now horses and elephants are animals but dogs and ducks aren't. You see why I get confused.

Willy Nilly. Gee whillakers, a human strip? And a fairly lame one, if I miss my guess. Still, it makes a change.

Buster Bunny. Back to the Alliterative Animals.

Happy Rabbit. Should he have been Hoppy Rabbit? I see him asking somebody to make a real man of him, but he comes out just a muscular rabbit. What a disappointment!

Dizzy Duck. Quite a lot going on here, though I should point out that even upper crust Brits don't say things like "Ameddica" and "hoddible." They do however say things like "How perfectly frightful," which sums this up nicely.

Spunky and Stanley. I take it this pre-dates Mr. Ed?

Happy Rabbit. Three appearances. So he's technically the star feature? Or, wait a minute, perhaps it's

Dizzy Duck. He's not the only one who's ready for the booby hatch now!

I did catch a signature that looked like EC or perhaps EG on the last Happy Rabbit strip but I don't suppose anyone can point me to a suitable culprit? For all I can tell, the whole mag could've been drawn by the same guy.

The contents box names Sniffy the Pup, but I can't see him in any of the strips either.

And I'm really disturbed by the ad about the guy who licks pimples. Yuk.

That's all I can stand, and I can't stands no more. I'll get back to the third choice when I've recovered my equilibrium. TTFN, K1ngcat.

[SuperScrounge]

Four Color 253 - Christmas With Mother Goose

Advice
Amusing bit of fluff.

The 3 Blind Mice Play Santa
I probably would have liked it more as a kid, but amusing.

Little Boy Blue and Little Girl Green
Ditto.

Jenny Wren
Okay.

Simple Simon and the Wiseman
Kinda weak.

3 Christmas Bears
That laughing at the end felt like someone thought "better give it a happy ending for the kiddies."

All Around the Christmas Tree
Eh.

See Saw - Sacar a Down
Uhhhhhhh... bwha?

Miss Cross Patch on Christmas Eve
I'm beginning to wonder if Walt Kelly was drunk at this point in the book.

Jeminy's Christmas
Okaaaaaaaaaayyyy... not really a bad story, but Kelly's bouncing around to odd tangents has passed my tolerance level.

Who's in What?
Eh.

Christmas Grace
Eh.

[SuperScrounge]

Happy Rabbit. With a cast of thousands. And a lot happening, most of which is barely credible, even for Funny Animals. I note that nobody at GCD has been able to find any artists or writers to credit, maybe that'll spare a few blushes.

The GCD does have identities for them, but the new way they credit people (links vs. text) doesn't translate to the way CB+ shows the info. Vince Fago is credited for the first Happy Rabbit, Ralph Wolfe is a guess for the second.

I did catch a signature that looked like EC or perhaps EG on the last Happy Rabbit strip but I don't suppose anyone can point me to a suitable culprit?

Ellis Chambers.

[crashryan]

Merry and/or Happy Christmas to all! Robb has served up a nice holiday feast for us.

What can I say about A Christmas Carol that hasn't already been said? H.M. Brock was a perfect choice to draw this story. He specialized in Victorian and Edwardian themes and had a pen-and-ink style that betrayed his 19th-century education (Brock was born in 1875 and died in 1960). In the days before CB+ appeared on my radar I had known Brock exclusively as a book, magazine, and poster illustrator. I never dreamed he was also a comics artist! One bio I read says he illustrated over 2000 books (!) including, you guessed it, an edition of A Christmas Carol.

I've been seeing and hearing movie, radio, and comics versions of A Christmas Carol my entire life. If I ever read the original story I don't remember it.  I'm completely unqualified to judge the quality of this adaptation other than to say it reads well and looks great. It contains several bits I don't remember from other versions, for example Marley disappearing with "the phantoms of the night." The only thing I don't understand is just what turned Ebenezer from an isolated boy reading to escape loneliness into a grim, grasping young man. His early days at Fezziwig's seem to have been happy. Whence came his "care and avarice"? Ring up Dickens, will you, and ask him to clear this up. I notice that this adaptation chooses not to mention the death of Tiny Tim in the Future section. The comic includes unpleasant scenes like that of the undertaker and the domestics fencing the dead Scrooge's possessions. Why not mention Tiny Tim?

I wonder if I don't get a little hint of that old humbug that the life of poorer people is infinitely preferable to that of their richer counterparts, which I strangely doubt, as I only ever hear the rich saying it.

I wondered about that so I looked up some information about Dickens. It turns out that Dickens, though born to a middle-class family, went through hard times as a boy when his father went broke and was sent to debtors' prison. In his early years he published pamphlets denouncing the treatment of the poor and visited the tin mines and the Ragged School. His outrage over conditions there exerted a strong influence on A Christmas Carol. His Wikipedia entry says that throughout his life Dickens was ashamed of his poor upbringing and tried to hide the fact that many of his scenes of abject poverty were drawn from his own experience. That said, he did end up rich and famous and in the 1860s he participated in the upper-class fad of "doing the slums."

A very satisfying comic overall.

[crashryan]

Santa's Christmas Comics #1

More like "Two Christmas Stories and a Bunch of Unrelated Stuff from Our Regular Funny-Animal Comics."

I haven't the patience to comment on every story in the book. It's not even necessary since the non-seasonal stories are so similar. My general criticism is that the writers seem to have put no thought into story logic or internal consistency.

There's only one genuine Christmas story: Supermouse in "A Super Merry Christmas." ("Coo-Coo's Christmas Capers" mentions Christmas but the holiday plays no part in the story.) It's a mess. Everyone's already mentioned Terrible Tom's sudden, illogical repentance. TT isn't the only one with problems. Supermouse's powers change from page to page. He can fly. However when he's frozen in a block of ice he starts to crash. The next moment he somehow regains the lost altitude and is able to speed up and catch an escaping jet. In one panel he's knocked out by a wooden mallet. A few panels later it takes over 3000 pounds of iron to knock him out. Judging by the fact that afterward "Soupie" needs to eat some super cheese to have the strength to break his chains, maybe he ran his power down by chasing the plane. I don't know. Does he ride a seal into battle because he can't fly all the way back to the castle on his own power, or just because he doesn't want to outrun his chums? It strikes me as sloppy writing.

An production oddity caught my eye. In this story and several others, the letterer puts a crazy amount of blank space between words. A line like

          HERE COMES SANTA'S SLEIGH NOW!

is lettered like this:

          HERE   COMES   SANTA'S   SLEIGH   NOW!

Usually this sort of odd spacing means the story was lettered with a Varityper or a similar desktop typesetting machine.  The thing is, these units work like glorified typewriters. A type bar bearing a letter's shape strikes a ribbon, transferring the letter to the page. In comics lettering this means that every capital A on a page will look exactly alike. If the letter has some peculiarity, say its left "leg" is a tiny bit longer than its right, then every A in the story will have the same peculiarity. You can see this in Charlton's "A. Machine" lettering. The left side of the M is always squished in, the righthand stroke on the W runs straight up instead of at an angle, and the O's float a bit above the baseline.

Well, that ain't the case here. All the letters have the slight variations one expects in hand lettering. The extra word spacing is a deliberate choice. But why?

Other observations:

(1) The majority of the stories are just a string of pratfalls. This gets old fast.

(2) Dizzy Duck isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. We can accept his doing dumb things. But that he can see two armed thugs standing in front of a bank with a safe, money bags, and and a drawn gun and not know something is amiss is idiotic. Even cartoon worlds need some internal logic.

(3) With the exception of Supermouse's Mabel all the heroes' girl friends are abusive, self-centered ballbusters who make the early Lois Lane looks like Goody Two-Shoes.

(4) Goofy Gander in "Ship A-Hooey" is moronic. A boat builder ships a brand new boat with a note saying not to use it because there's a "piece missing." Goofy says it's a lucky thing he knows how to fly a helicopter and next panel remembers he's never even been in one. He's still able to fly it well enough to reach Wally's boat. This is easily the worst story in the book.

(5) I don't buy that Merton Monk's sudden wealth would cause all his friends to dump him. It's usually the other way around. Like the song says: "When you got money, you got lots of friends crowdin' 'round your door. But when the money's gone and all the spendin' ends, they won't come around any more."

(6) Happy Rabbit is a jerk.

There's some decent art in this book but it can't save the bleah stories.

[The Australian Panther]

Co-incidentally, [I have told you how much I love serendipity, have I not?] I have been reading the collected edition of Tim Sale and Jeph Loeb's wonderful, BATMAN THE LONG HALLOWEEN :THE PREQUEL - HAUNTED KNIGHT, in which in the chapter, 'Ghosts','they use 'A Christmas Carol' as a template to explore the Batman Mythos.
Recommended.       

[paw broon]

I wasn't sure if I should comment on the 2 American titles as I didn't want to offend Robb. 
Christmas Carol is excellent and, once again I really enjoyed this version.  Beautifully drawn.
But the other 2? Either it's my lack of a sense of humour or there is something awful with these books.
For once I girded my loins and made a major attempt to read them.  I got half way through Santa's Christmas before I gave up the will to live.
The Walt Kelly book is nice to look at in places but I've never got why he's so popular.
Sorry.

[Robb_K]

I wasn't sure if I should comment on the 2 American titles as I didn't want to offend Robb. 
Christmas Carol is excellent and, once again I really enjoyed this version.  Beautifully drawn.
But the other 2? Either it's my lack of a sense of humour or there is something awful with these books.
For once I girded my loins and made a major attempt to read them.  I got half way through Santa's Christmas before I gave up the will to live.
The Walt Kelly book is nice to look at in places but I've never got why he's so popular.
Sorry.

No offence taken.  The Walt Kelly work is good quality artwork, and a mixture of centuries old nursery rhymes, and Kelly trying to mimic that style of writing, whether prose or poetry.  It was always for little children, and dissidents poking fun at the royal personages they did not like, and the notorious nobility they despised, hidden in the guise of children's fare. 

The Standard Comics' so-called Christmas annual is full of nonsensical stories, "written" without thought in a half hour or less, just to make money as quickly as possible, sold to a publisher who thought the kids wouldn't know the difference, and artwork done very quickly, by both high-quality and mediocre artists, who were just drawing for quick money and didn't care about the quality of their work.

I just threw the Standard so-called "Annual" in because it was based on a request for special Christmas books, and I wanted to represent the Funny Animal genre, and it was a quite rare type of issue for that genre being PD now, and also not being just a collection of reprint stories by that publisher, with a Christmas-themed cover slapped on.  The big, animation studio/multi-media partnerships like Warner Brothers/Schlesinger, MGM/Hanna-Barbera, Walter Lantz/Universal, and Disney/RKO had the animated films' recognition levels to have a significantly larger magnitude of difference to be able to afford to have their own large staffs of comic book artists, generally at higher pay than those of the small, independent comic book companies, and more importantly, their production franchises or in-house editorship departments did not need to scrimp on costs of operations as much as the tiny comic book publishers.  So they could afford to have larger editorial staffs and higher standards of product acceptance from their production staffs, whether from in house departments or the largest subcontracting franchises like Western Publishing.  So, companies like Ned Pines' Nedor and Standard Comics didn't bother to spend extra money creating special annual giant comics editions. Almost all their few funny animal giant books were not tied to holidays or special themes, and simply regularly cranked-out short stories slapped together in books of a much greater size, with a special new cover.  This particular 1952 book was an attempt by Standard, to cash in on Disney's and Warner Brothers' recent (1950 and 1951) success at selling record-breaking numbers of giant Christmas-themed comic books for the first time.  As a few of you noted, Robert Farrell's "Billy Bunny's Christmas Frolics", from 1952, was another, concoction of non-Christmas stories (all reprints), with a Christmas-themed cover slapped on.  At least, Ziff-Davis' "Santa Claus Parade" and "Christmas Carnival" in 1951 and 1952, also attempting to jump on Disney's bandwagon, contained Christmas-based stories, specially produced for their books.

I included this mainly for its historical interest for that genre.  It had some stories drawn by superior artists like Lynn Karp and Jack Bradbury, but their artwork in this book is mediocre, at best.  Their work for Ben Sangor's Studio from 1941-1948 was top notch, and much more realistic, and they had teamed with the highest quality funny animal story writers.  In late 1948, Ben Sangor stopped producing for outside publishers, cut down his staff, as several of them started working directly for DC's Funny Animal Department, on the titles for whom they worked for Sangor, and the remainder worked directly for Sangor's Creston/AGC Titles (Giggle, Ha Ha, Funny Films) or directly for his nephew, Ned Pines' titles (Coo Coo, Goofy, Barnyard, Happy, Dizzy Duck, SuperMouse, Buster Bunny, Sniffy The Pup, and Spunky).
The quality of their artwork dropped precipitously once they were working directly for Pines.

Unfortunately, there were really no non-Western Publishing-produced special Christmas Funny Animal issues that were very memorable, that are currently PD.  But, I wanted to represent them, nevertheless.  I suppose that at least some of you enjoy looking at the Walt Kelly book.

[Robb_K]

Merry and/or Happy Christmas to all! Robb has served up a nice holiday feast for us.

I've been seeing and hearing movie, radio, and comics versions of A Christmas Carol my entire life. If I ever read the original story I don't remember it.  It contains several bits I don't remember from other versions, for example Marley disappearing with "the phantoms of the night." (1) The only thing I don't understand is just what turned Ebenezer from an isolated boy reading to escape loneliness into a grim, grasping young man. His early days at Fezziwig's seem to have been happy. Whence came his "care and avarice"? Ring up Dickens, will you, and ask him to clear this up. I notice that this adaptation chooses not to mention the death of Tiny Tim in the Future section.

(2) The comic includes unpleasant scenes like that of the undertaker and the domestics fencing the dead Scrooge's possessions. Why not mention Tiny Tim?

I wonder if I don't get a little hint of that old humbug that the life of poorer people is infinitely preferable to that of their richer counterparts, which I strangely doubt, as I only ever hear the rich saying it.

I wondered about that so I looked up some information about Dickens. It turns out that Dickens, though born to a middle-class family, went through hard times as a boy when his father went broke and was sent to debtors' prison. In his early years he published pamphlets denouncing the treatment of the poor and visited the tin mines and the Ragged School. His outrage over conditions there exerted a strong influence on A Christmas Carol. His Wikipedia entry says that (3) throughout his life Dickens was ashamed of his poor upbringing and tried to hide the fact that many of his scenes of abject poverty were drawn from his own experience. That said, he did end up rich and famous and in the 1860s he participated in the upper-class fad of "doing the slums."  

(1) As I remember, according to the original story and most of the films and other adaptations I've read or viewed, it was his beloved sister's death in giving childbirth, that soured him.  He believed that she died needlessly because she was poor, and didn't have the medical support she could have received in the best of hospitals, or with the best qualified doctors attending her at home, IF she or her family had been very wealthy.  So, he vowed to work tirelessly to amass the great level of wealth that could protect him and his future family from such dangers.  But as his warned him when she broke of their engagement, Dickens made a point to impress on the reader that Scrooge's original admirable goals got obscured, and eventually lost, and replaced by avarice and greed, and his becoming inconsiderate of the plight of his fellow humans.

(2) The original book, and most of the adaptations I've seen DO show or refer to scenes in which Tiny Tim dies, and his family is very sad, forever after, for the lack of his cheerful manner, and positive attitude in the face of adversity.  All three of the 1930s through early 1950s films I love best, include Scrooge asking the "Ghost of Christmas Future" what will happen to Tiny Tim.  And the Spectre either points to Tim's gravestone (as in the book), or, as in the films and the book, showing that Tim's crutch no longer lies up against the fireplace in The Cratchetts' Living Room, and shows the father, Bob, explaining to his family that they shouldn't be sad for Tim, because he is now in a better place, free of his pain, and he would want them to be happy for him and enjoy the joys of this festive season.  The following scene from a late 1940s comic book adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" in Dell's "Santa Claus Funnies (Four Color Comics Series 2) shows Bob Cratchet mourning the death of his son at his bedside, with Scrooge looking on, admitting to the Ghost of Christmas Future, that he "murdered" Tiny Tim by his neglect and stingy treatment of Tim's father:


So, it is very clear that not only does "Uncle Scrooge" become a changed man, and like an extra special  grandfather (or "Uncle") as Tim now refers to him, but his generosity has clearly not only saved Tim's life, but cured him altogether of his affliction and bumpiness.

(3) Yes, the tone hints at Dickens, now a wealthy celebrity, trying to distance himself from the poverty and despair he suffered from as a young child.  And slumming, and speaking for the miserable plight of the poor from his position as a wealthy advocate for societal reform, smacks heavily of that.

[crashryan]

Christmas with Mother Goose

I love Walt Kelly's artwork. His character design, expressive posing, and beautiful brushwork never grow old. He was also one heckuva letterer.

I also enjoy Kelly's writing. His Dell Pogo stories still make me laugh. The stories in this book aren't his greatest. He seems to be limited by the Christmas theme. Still the "Three Blind Mice" story has its share of amusing dialogue and funny situations. Kelly doesn't do much of his trademark wordplay, though. More's the pity.

Most of the book consists of real and/or invented nursery rhymes. Kelly seems to have been fascinated by nursery rhymes. The theme popped up in several of his newspaper Pogo continuities as well as some very funny extended stories in his all-new-material Pogo paperbacks of the 1950s. I've always loved his title, "Mother Goosery Rinds." The poems here do nothing for me. I just look at the art, for example the wonderfully expressive dog on the inside front cover. One odd thing is that some of Kelly's verses don't scan. He was one of the few comic book poets who paid attention to meter. It's unusual for him to put in excess syllables or omit necessary ones.

In closing I'll say thanks, Robb, for offering up this interesting selection.

[K1ngcat]

Christmas with Mother Goose.

Well now. Here's a Funny Animal comic that I can really enjoy. Kelly's artwork is beyond reproach, his comic timing is excellent, the in-gags are great, though I hear what crash has to say about the meter of his poetry, some of it really doesn't scan well. What upsets me most is the terrible discovery that the Three Blind Mice aren't optically challenged at all, and more than that, they all have beautiful tails. Unless of course this story takes place before they lost their sight and suffered their tragic run in with the Farmer's Wife. By which standards they should be named the Three Perfectly Sighted Mice. Moving on...

Little Boy Blue etc. Less said the better about the poetry, so ALL the animals are toys? The parrot had me fooled for a while. Now how many kids do you know who have a toy Yak? And do all little girls really keep showing their knickers, or is it just an artistic device? Cute, it passes the time, but not as satisfying as the mouse story.

Jenny Wren. Wow, that was over quickly! Inclined to write this of as padding.

Simple Simon. Sorry, he's really just TOO simple. A nod to the Walrus and the Carpenter though.

Three Christmas Bears. The art's beautiful, the lettering impeccable, but the rhythm of the rhymes is starting to get on my nerves now. Some people seem to think it's poetry so long as the ends of each line rhyme, but it's really not that easy. Ask Smokey Robinson.

The Christmas Tree. Starting to stretch it a bit, Walt!

See Saw. Sacar-a-down? Seriously? I can find no linguistic basis for this, sacar seems to be Spanish/Portuguese for "to withdraw," after that I have nothing. You're testing my patience here Walt. Can't you do another story like the Three Mice thing?

Miss Cross Patch. I think even Mother Goose could write better than this. Mr Kelly, you're trading on your name.

Jeminy's Christmas. Okay, Walt, all is forgiven. Do what you like on the last two pages!!

The first I ever heard of Walt Kelly and Pogo Possum was Mad magazine's lampoon Gopo Gossum which meant little to me aged 11 or 12. But I still remember, "We told him to learn parlour tricks and join a party." Ring a bell with anyone out there?

All the best for Xmas
K1ngcat

[crashryan]

And do all little girls really keep showing their knickers, or is it just an artistic device?

I noticed this, too. Then thinking back I realized that it was a common thing in cartoony Golden Age comics: little girls in short dresses showing their underwear. You start seeing this in 1920s cartoons and newspaper strips. I don't recall seeing pre-WWI equivalents. Apparently it was supposed to be cute. The trope was limited to girls. Boys occasionally showed their bare posteriors at the ol' swimming hole but they never flashed their BVD's.

[Quirky Quokka]

Santa’s Christmas Comic No. 1

Interesting funny animal comics for the time. Some good humorous art. I was going to comment on each story, but as I went on, some similar things kept coming up, so I’ll just comment specifically on a few and then make some general comments.

Supermouse in ‘A Super-Merry Christmas’

Fun story with some original elements. Though if Terrible Tom had guns and bombs and cannons, wouldn’t they be able to take care of all the arctic friends that Supermouse rounded up? Though I can understand why a Christmas bloodbath might not have been the best story option  In spite of plot holes galore, Supermouse was probably my favourite of the characters in this comic book. I probably would have liked this story when I was a little kid.

Goofy Gander in ‘Ship-A-Hooey’

Fun in a slapstick sort of way, with a few good one-liners. Would make a funny cartoon with visual gags.

Just a question for you comic historians, though. I’m not familiar with Goofy Gander, but I was wondering how Walt Disney felt about this character when his Goofy seems to have predated this guy. Though I guess it also has that meaning that the gander is a bit goofy, so maybe it’s okay to have two funny animals with the same name. I just thought ‘Goofy’ was a more unique name for two characters than more common names like Mickey or Peter.

Bonny Bunny in ‘Tragic Magic’

This one did make me smile. Always fun when a trick backfires.

Happy Rabbit in ‘Revenge is Sweet’

Fairly involved plot that could fit the category ‘be careful what you wish for’. Interesting how scammers are still using some of the same ploys today, only with further reach on the internet. I’ve received one of those emails about a rich relative in Japan dying, and they will send me the million dollars as long as I provide my bank details. I wonder if those scammers started out by reading Dad’s and Grandad’s copies of Happy Rabbit?

Percy Pig in ‘A Vicious Cycle’

‘Half the time, women baffle me … and the rest of the time they puzzle me’. My husband would probably still say that 

Extras

I liked all the extra bits like the Christmas puzzles and board game, though it looks like the little tyke who owned this comic wasn’t so keen on them. I didn’t read the short stories, but they also added a bit extra. It would have been a good value-for-money comic back in the day.

General Comments

This would have come later than the ‘Tom and Jerry’ type comics where it was fine to beat everyone up and do terrible things to each other. I never read those comics, but I remember seeing Tom and Jerry shorts at the movies, and I was never a big fan of those types of cartoons, even when I was a kid. A few of the stories in this book are in that category (e.g., the boss abusing Coocoo), and a lot of the characters are pretty mean to each other even when they’re supposed to be friends (e.g., the girlfriends who dump the boyfriends because they’re not rich or down on their luck; and the friends who hit Merton on the head with a mallet because he’d given his money away). I’m quite happy to read comic book violence where the good guys beat the bad guys, but I’ve never really been a fan of comics where friends, romantic partners and colleagues can also be mean to each other. Okay, I know these are comics and that real people can be mean, just not my favourite kinds of stories. But the art was good and there were some cute tales too. I probably wouldn’t seek out any more of these to read, and I don’t think I would have been crazy about these when I was a kid. That was a later era and I was a bigger fan of the Hanna-Barbera characters.

Thanks for the pick, Robb.

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

Santa's Christmas Comics

A Vicious Cycle
Percy needs a new girlfriend.

Money to Spurn
With friends like that, who needs enemies?

Hi SuperScrounge

I wasn't crazy about the stories where characters were just plain mean either. They needed a relationships counsellor on the comics board   

Cheers

QQ